Undercouncil
The Undercouncil serves a similar purpose to the Overcouncil. It is founded when two or more players follow the Undercouncil Civic. It can only be joined by Neutral or Evil players (though if Neutral they can't also be members of The Overcouncil). Resolutions may be voted on every 15 turns. The Undercouncil is run by money: nearly all of its resolutions cost a little gold from its members. They can vote to declare war on a common enemy or open borders to each other. There are no restrictive resolutions on the Undercouncil, they never vote to enforce a civic or outlaw anything. Exception is tech trading. Generally Undercouncil is stronger than Overcouncil. It is a no brainier choice when you're neutral, and worth becoming neutral for if you're good. The Overcouncil maintain his appeal only if you manage to dominate it and if you pursue a Diplomatic Victory or if you have Permanent Alliances enabled, due to high diplomatic bonus with other members, completely absent in Undercouncil. As in the Religion game, it is quite possible to hop in a Council only the period needed to grab the benefits. Gain new members You may choose to gift deception Tech itself, to get new undercouncil members. And remember that yoy may force an Aligment on other player whene making peace, influencing their Counsil membership. Resolutions The Undercouncil has several special resolutions: # Enlist the Nightwatch - Each undercouncil member gains a Nightwatch for 25 Gold. Note that Nightwatch will have the Council of Esus Relgion and will be able to spread it. # Develop Secret Codes - Grants a free Great Sage to each member for 25 Gold. Each council member can only trade techs with other council members. # Fund Dissidents - 50% to create 1-3 Turns of Unrest in cities owned by Overcouncil Members. # Gambling Ring - reduces to 25% the production cost of Gambling Houses in all your cities. # Slave Trade - All Undercouncil members can buy and sell slaves. # Smuggling Ring - Allows members to build Smugglers Ports in their coastal cities. # Force War - All undercouncil members declare war on a particular non-member # Open Borders - All members open borders to each other. Strategy Gambling Houses are important building for any Civ that is not fixed at 100% research, and saving three quarter hammers on a wide spread building is nice: it will cost less than a Market. Smugglers' Port are wonderful, cheap building for your Coastal Cities. Coastal cities are always favored in gold generation thanks to extra Trade Routes and Harbor. To summarize all the economic oriented building in a coastal city, cheaper first: # Gambling Houses +3 and +1 per 10% Tax Rate but +10 to Crime Rate, 50 (reduced from 200 ) # Market +3 , 1 Merchant, 60 (30 if Financial trait) # Smugglers' Port +1 Trade Routes, +25% , 1 Merchant but +10 to Crime Rate, 120 # Harbor +25% Yield from Trade Routes, 120 (60 if Expansive trait) # Money Changer +25% , 1 Merchant, 250 (125 if Financial trait) # Inn +1 Trade Routes, +25% Yield from Trade Routes, +1 from Wine but +5 to Crime Rate, 250 # Tavern +1 Trade Routes +25% Yield from Trade Routes, +1 Great Bard , but +5 to Crime Rate +10% City Maintenance, 250 Note that Smugglers' Port, Inn, Tavern and Gambling Houses give penalty to Crime Rate (+30% tot) and Gambling House adds also +10% City Maintenance, but the benefit normally is far superior. These buildings are a great incentive to enter Undercouncil, if only the time it requires to upgrade your main ports. The building will remain also if you later abandon. Great Sage and Nightwatch are only one time things, but Slave Trade allows you to buy an infinite number of slaves ... very powerful in conjunction with Octopus Overlord upgrade path, Slave Trade eliminates worker problems entirely, allowing you to create a horde of workers from nothing, anytime, anyplace. For example, a brand new city on another continent. The slaves can also be sacrificed to add production to a city, which is useful when you're not using a purchase-allowing civic, and also fills a conceptual gap, in that Civ IV doesn't allow partial payments on buildings. Balseraphs has an extra bonus to their Freak Show. Non-human slaves can be added to cities in cages, for extra happiness, allowing you to push city sizes farther. Secret codes: Limits tech trading among undercouncil members, AND gives a free great sage. (well, 25 gold is practically free for what you're getting). It is not useful restricting the tech trading, as it prevents gifting deception itself, to get new undercouncil members, but having an easy, repeatable way to get great sages, is amazing. It's by far the best resolution available. A benefit is to keep your vassals from trading away prize techs to your enemies. Hire the Nightwatch: Gives you a reasonably powerful, hidden nationality archery unit. It's a nice way of getting a few HN units if you don't have CoE, and/or haven't discovered bowyers yet. (quite a late tech)